Which positions/roles are most stacked or scarce in talent at the moment?

[Skills]

Stacked:

8/10 hybrids - seems like there are loads of players in the market and in football who are comfortable in this position.

CBs - it feels like a new top CB prospect emerges almost every summer

Scarce:

ST - the striker market has been scarce for a while and teams are seemingly having to adapt to play without a ST or spending way over the odds for the quality they're getting.

Deep Lying Playmaker - the Busquets role. Plenty of players are comfortable in the defensive phase, but not many seem that comfortable building up play from that position. I reckon it's why the 3 atb has made a bit of a come back in the last 5 years or so.

 

[Rojofiam]

Scarce: Right-back.

 

[Moby]

No really good keepers around.

 

[galwayfa]

Goal poachers

 

[Red Stone]

Left wingers are dime a dozen. Good right wingers are rare.

 

[padr81]

Left backs I think and strikers are scarce.
In terms of lbs none of the top clubs have genuine World beaters there cept maybe Liverpool and Bayern.

RB weirdly is stacked by comparison.

Outide of a couple of elder statesmen only haaland and mbappe up top.

There's a crazy amount of class no. 8s (City alone have 3).

 

[Trequarista10]

Traditional wingers are scarce, both left and right wing, because nobody plays with traditional wingers at the moment.

 

[André Dominguez]

World class profilic strikers are always a scarce position since basically football exists

 

[Skills]

World class profilic strikers are always a scarce position since basically football exists

I don't know if this is that true. Circa Mid 2010s you had

Aguero
Higuain
Benzema
Cavani
Ibrahimovic
Lewandowski
Suarez
Kane

A few years before that Van Persie, Rooney, Falcao, Tevez & David Villa too.

At the moment it's Haaland, Mbappe, Benzema, Lewandowski & Kane - with the first two being the new additions, while the rest are just what's been whittled down from the mid 2010s line up.

 

[Powderfinger]

LB and RW are scarce because both positions are dominated by left footers and there aren't that many of them.

Striker is scarce because its really hard to find players who can do everything a lot of teams now want from that position - ie, get in the box and score goals, while also being able to drop deep and combine.

I think truly top level CBs are also very scarce because they're also asked to do so many things well - not many players have the ball playing skills, physicality, game reading, and quickness package all together but you really can't be truly top level without all four at this point, assuming you're playing for a team that wants the ball. The talent at the position just seems more plentiful because lots of CBs can appear top level simply because they're protected from having certain responsibilities or getting into certain situations.

I agree with others who have said LW, box-to-box midfielder, and RB seem like the easiest to find right now.

 

[Sky1981]

I dont think traditional winger and traditional full back are rare. Teams just dont play that way these days.

If need be and if the trend somehow bucked most outstanding winger and wingbacks would have no problem converting. Their skillset is more than enough to make them good as traditional winger and full back

A strong battering ram target man, now that's lacking. 1

 

[SAFMUTD]

9s, RW and RB. In that order.

 

[colombianmancunian]

Strikers are rare to find now, the only clear ones of the new generation are Halaand, M’Bappe and Lautaro. But there are some coming such as Orishem and N’kunku.

RW are imposible to find. So much that if you want one, you need to overpay as we did with Antony.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Quality strikers (not just poachers). Really tough to find. Deep lying playmakers that can also defend are rare as well.

 

[NoPace]

8s (who can actually pass) and RWs are the most scarce spots I think.

Then probably 9s and LCBs.

 

[André Dominguez]

I don't know if this is that true. Circa Mid 2010s you had

Aguero
Higuain
Benzema
Cavani
Ibrahimovic
Lewandowski
Suarez
Kane

A few years before that Van Persie, Rooney, Falcao, Tevez & David Villa too.

At the moment it's Haaland, Mbappe, Benzema, Lewandowski & Kane - with the first two being the new additions, while the rest are just what's been whittled down from the mid 2010s line up.

In that decade, Mario Gomez was one of the hottest striker in the market for a few years, Falcao was the world's best striker. Giuseppe Rossi almost signed for Man Utd after a brilliant season at Villarreal, only to get a career wrecking injury. Even Álvaro Negredo and Roberto Soldado were considered great prospects at that time, scoring a lot of goals+assists in La Liga. If I remember correctly only Cavani was banging 20+ goals, all the other players were actually doing a very good outcome of goals + assists though, but were still developing into the players they were on their prime.

 

[DWelbz19]

8s (who can actually pass) and RWs are the most scarce spots I think.

Hmm, interesting point. It's like the key ability to control the short and medium game of the pitch has been replaced with the ability to either run manically in a press for 90 minutes or the '8/10' hybrid mentioned in the OP who hide their lack of ability in the build-up phase through goals and contributions in the final third.

 

[AlPistacho]

Left wingers are dime a dozen. Good right wingers are rare.

Isn’t that because most of the right footed wingers play on the left these days ?

 

[AlPistacho]

Hmm, interesting point. It's like the key ability to control the short and medium game of the pitch has been replaced with the ability to either run manically in a press for 90 minutes or the '8/10' hybrid mentioned in the OP who hide their lack of ability in the build-up phase through goals and contributions in the final third.

The likes of Iniesta & Silva vs players like Fernandes

 

[Tallis]

There seem to be a lot of inside forwards/ inverters wingers in football but not as many good 9s.

 

[NoPace]

Hmm, interesting point. It's like the key ability to control the short and medium game of the pitch has been replaced with the ability to either run manically in a press for 90 minutes or the '8/10' hybrid mentioned in the OP who hide their lack of ability in the build-up phase through goals and contributions in the final third.

In the Prem I guess there's Gundogan, Kovacic, we should probably add Eriksen and that's about it. I'd add Bernardo Silva because he can play anywhere and was fantastic against Liverpool in that game, but dunno if his body would stand up to playing in a double pivot for multiple seasons. Mac Allister might be one too, has looked quite good passing from deep this year. I'm probably forgetting someone. Tielemans is struggling, Roca is a decent mid-table version of this player and while Lavia has played as a 6, he might grow into this type of footballer.

England are desperate for one. France not having one might be their undoing with Pogba and Kante not healthy. Tchouameni looks a solid #6 but unclear who Deschamps will start and if Camavinga (who looks a wonderful talent) is ready yet to lead a team at a World Cup.